Olbermann back on the air Tuesday

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann will return to the air Tuesday night, after being suspended without pay Friday for making political contributions to three Democratic candidates.

"After several days of deliberation and discussion, I have determined that suspending Keith through and including Monday night's program is an appropriate punishment for his violation of our policy. We look forward to having him back on the air Tuesday night," MSNBC President Phil Griffin said in a statement Sunday night.

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VIDEO: On Murdoch donations

POLITICO 44

Griffin’s announcement means that Olbermann’s suspension — originally announced as being indefinite — will mean he missed two nights of “Countdown With Keith Olbermann,” MSNBC’s flagship prime-time program.

But Griffin’s decision Friday set off a controversy over whether MSNBC was doing the right thing by punishing a liberal commentator for giving to Democratic candidates — donations first reported by POLITICO.

Mike Allen reported in Playbook Sunday that Olbermann was punished because he refused to deliver an on-camera apology for his donations, which broke NBC rules because he didn’t tell his bosses about them first. Allen also reported that Olbermann told his bosses that he wasn’t aware of the policy, though he was reluctant to say that publicly.

“Greetings From Exile! A quick, overwhelmed, stunned THANK YOU for support that feels like a global hug & obviously left me tweetless XO.”

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow delivered the most detailed explanation of MSNBC’s thinking behind Olbermann’s suspension on her show Friday, saying that she was aware of the rule and understood why he had to be suspended for breaking it. Maddow argued that that MSNBC’s punishment of Olbermann served to highlight what made the cable network different from Fox News, where there is no rule against its on-air personalities donating to candidates.

“Let this incident lay to rest forever the facile, never-true-anyway, bullpucky, lazy conflation of Fox News and what the rest of us do for a living,” she said, arguing that Fox personalities endorse and fundraise for candidates in a way that MSNBC personalities don’t.

“Yes, Keith’s a liberal, and so am I, and there are other people on this network whose political views are shared openly with you, our beloved viewers,” she said. “But we are not a political operation. Fox is. We are a news operation. And the rules around here are part of how you know that.”

Fox News, however, says the network does not espouse a particular point of view, arguing that its conservative prime-time hosts like Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly offer views in much the way the opinion pages of a newspaper do, while the network’s news coverage is objective.

Olbermann’s suspension also touched off a debate about whether the rule that Olbermann broke was appropriate for opinionated hosts in his position.

“MSNBC is enforcing a set of standards meant to apply either to another entity — NBC News — or another era, when news people had to act as if they didn’t have political rooting interests,” wrote The New York Times’s David Carr on Sunday night. “The game has changed, but the rules remain the same, at least at some media outlets.”

Meanwhile, Olbermann’s fans spent Friday deluging MSNBC with phone calls and e-mails, Maddow said during her show. By Sunday, more than 200,000 had signed a petition to reinstate him organized by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

No surprise. This sounds like nothing but a big publicity stunt for MSNBC and Olbermann. MSNBC gets to espouse their holier than thou attitude that somehow they are "objective" and not a political operation.

For a "news organization," MSNBC spends an inordinate amount of time criticizing its competition. It's the pot calling the kettle black. They were the only ones who had their political commentators anchoring their election coverage. CNN and Fox had their news anchors, and not their talk show hosts, cover the actual news events that day.

As I've always understood it, the news media is supposed to be impartial in their reporting. With the ultra liberal MSNBC and the ultra conservative FOX along with the admitted liberal TIME magazine I guess I was mistaken. Just another reason the media is fighting a losing battle.

"After several days of deliberation and discussion, I have determined that suspending Keith through and including Monday night's program is an appropriate punishment for his violation of our policy. We look forward to having him back on the air Tuesday night," MSNBC President Phil Griffin said in a statement Sunday night.

Lame.

Either fire him or change your policy.

“Yes, Keith’s a liberal, and so am I, and there are other people on this network whose political views are shared openly with you, our beloved viewers,” she said. “But we are not a political operation. Fox is. We are a news operation. And the rules around here are part of how you know that.”

Hello?!!! Of course, you are a political operation. Why can't you see it, Rachel?

msnbc makes no pretense as fox does of being fair and balanced ... msnbc is a liberal leaning political news outlet and fox is the propaganda arm of the republican/conservative/ultra conservervative political parties

"CNN and Fox had their news anchors, and not their talk show hosts, cover the actual news events that day."

are you serious ... my pet monkey can report the election results ... you absolutely have to have political commentary to place the results in perspective whatever it may be (for the conservative who respond with comments on this board you need talking points from those commentators otherwise you would be lost as a goose)

an example of incorrect interpretation is cantor's statement about policy ... reality and polling demands that the conclusion should be "it's the economy stupid"

I will be the first to say "welcome back Keith". The policy was enforced selectively anyways. Scarborough has donated and has appeared at rallys for his Republican breathren. And Larry Kudlow at CNBC has done it.

With his return to the cable route of MSNBC after a two night , suspension , I think MSNBC has proven my point that they wanted to garner all of the ratings they could . When Rachel Maddow said that MSNBC was no Fox , thank goodness she was also telling the truth .

There are seven comments above written by people that have lots of hate in their hearts for those that do not share their closed minded views . The sad part is that if you ask them what type of person they considerate themself to be I think you will hear. I am a good christian conservative. I hope that you know that you are not fooling anyone with that cover -up your hate bull. When are you guys going to stop using hate as a tool to be a conservative. The God I serve does not peach hate. Shame, Shame, shame.

Congratulations to the NETROOTS that quickly organized bulwarks and bastions.

NBC and Comcast had a Devil's bargain. KO was set up . These restrictions against 1st Amendment freedom of Speech and Free associations are disclaimers wihout merit. NO ONE can sign away their rights, EVER. the FASCISTS want to make people believe so, and they scare or cow people into submisssion.

MSNBC had Scarborough and Buchanan that have contributed PROCIFEROUSLY to Repukes...and not a WHIMPER from management.

Andrea Mitchell is FRICKEN Married to objectivist Alan Greenspan. Like SHE's not swayed !

Congratulations to the NETROOTS that quickly organized bulwarks and bastions.

NBC and Comcast had a Devil's bargain. KO was set up . These restrictions against 1st Amendment freedom of Speech and Free associations are disclaimers wihout merit. NO ONE can sign away their rights, EVER. the FASCISTS want to make people believe so, and they scare or cow people into submisssion.

MSNBC had Scarborough and Buchanan that have contributed PROCIFEROUSLY to Repukes...and not a WHIMPER from management.

Andrea Mitchell is FRICKEN Married to objectivist Alan Greenspan. Like SHE's not swayed !